Gregor Versondert, graduated at Cologne University, bar exam in Berlin in 1998, PhD in 2000, started his career in private practice (Norton Rose/Loschelder Rechtsanwälte) in Germany focusing on TM law and unfair competition. In 2005, he joined Procter & Gamble to take on the global responsibility for the company’s then perfumery business for six years. Currently, he is Global Legal Counsel (Commerce/Brand Equity) for P&G’s Shave Care business (BRAUN, GILLETTE, VENUS). Gregor is based in Geneva.

Susie is VP, Head of IP & Litigation at King, the makers of hit game “Candy Crush Saga” and other titles. She saw the company go from small developer to one of the biggest mobile game makers in the world. She guided King through the various IP aspects involved in its IPO and subsequent sale to Activision Blizzard and continues to advise on all aspects of IP & Litigation for King's games globally. Susie trained and worked as an Associate at CMS Cameron McKenna IP team, before moving to Skype as IP counsel and then to Microsoft. Susie's keen focus is on brand protection and enforcement. She is a member of the MARQUES Council and Brands and Marketing team.

Uwe has been active as in-house counsel with strong IP- background at Bayer AG, Novartis International AG and Henkel AG & Co KGaA for more than 20 years. Presently he is Corporate Vice President, Head of IP and Associate General Counsel within the Henkel Law Group, leading an in-house counsel team of Patent and Trademark Attorneys in Germany, USA and China, responsible for Henkel`s global IP portfolio for all Divisions.

Diana studied law at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, graduating in intellectual property law and European competition law in 1996. Diana started her career as a trademark attorney in private practice, followed by a career as IP lawyer in an IP boutique law firm. Diana has also gained extensive experience as in-house counsel, working for Royal Numico (now Danone), DSM and since 2007 for AkzoNobel. Diana has been a member of the Legislation Committee of the Benelux Association of Trademark and Design Attorneys (BMM) and has lectured about the Madrid System to IP practitioners from 2008-2013.

Sarah is a French-qualified lawyer as well as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. She holds a Certificate in Intellectual Property (trade marks, designs and models) from the Centre Robert Schumann of the University of Strasbourg. Sarah specials in intellectual property dealing with all the aspects involved in the creation, exploitation and protection of intellectual property rights and is responsible for the trade mark filing service in Paris. Sarah also deals with data protection and advertising matters.

Guido is Head of the Department Global Brand Protection at Coty Germany GmbH. His area of responsibility is to enforce selective distribution and brand protection for the whole Coty Group. Guido qualified at the Universities of Heidelberg and Lausanne. He is a member in various industry associations and chairs the working group on Selective Distribution and Law of the German Brand Association.

Tapio Blanc is Head of the Global Trade Marks Function of F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG in Basel, Switzerland, since 2016. He is a Swiss Lawyer graduated from the University of Basel. Before joining Roche, he worked in a law firm, at the Courts and in the Administration of Basel-City.

Bill is Head of Legal & IP at Virgin Enterprises Limited, which has responsibility for all aspects of the licensing, monetisation, protection and enforcement of the Virgin brand worldwide. Bill's particular expertise is in complex licensing arrangements, commercial contracts and brand protection. Before joining Virgin, Bill worked in the intellectual property department at Slaughter and May in London. Bill joined the MARQUES Intellectual Asset Management Team in 2013

Giordano Cardini studied law in various countries (France, the UK, the Netherlands) and graduated from the Siena University (Italy) in 1996.

After gaining experience in a law firm Giordano joined Ferrero in 1997. Until 2008 he worked in Arlon (Belgium) as the IP Manager for newly created Ferrero Brands.

In 2008 moved to Alba (Italy) to take on the position of the Intellectual Property Manager for all Ferrero Brands in Europe and the C.I.S. countries.

In 2015 moved to Luxembourg to take on the position of the Intellectual Property Areas Manager.Giordano represents Ferrero in various associations and committees, among those AIPPI, AIM Anti-counterfeiting Committee, ECTA, MARQUES, LES

Philippe Claude is Associate General Counsel, Marketing Properties at Mars, Inc. (based in New Jersey, USA) and is responsible for Mars’ chocolate brands globally, dealing with Trademark, Copyright, Design, Counterfeit, Licensing and Merchandising issues. Philippe holds a Law Degree from the Geneva University and is admitted to the Geneva Bar. He also holds a MD in Intellectual Property from the University of Alicante, Spain. Prior to joining Mars in 2015, Philippe worked 15 years for Nestlé, managing global trademark portfolio for various Nestlé businesses, and he was the Zone Intellectual Property Counsel - Americas, responsible for defining the intellectual property strategy and the management of the overall IP related exposure of Nestlé in the Americas (North & Central America, the Caribbean and Latin America).

Laura is a Council member of MARQUES and a project leader in the International Trademark Team of the association. Laura has over 25 years experience in Intellectual Property. Since 2008 she has been the Managing Partner of Dumont Bergman Bider. Her practice includes the complete lifecycle of IP rights from advising to litigation and enforcement, as well as licensing; she is a litigator both in the trademark and patent fields. Laura started in the field in a renowned IP firm and then moved to work at the Mexican Trademark Office (IMPI) where she was the sub-director for the Prevention of Unfair Competition in charge of all infringements. She has taught the subjects of trademarks, copyrights and Intellectual Property in several law schools in Mexico and has written many articles regarding IP. Laura has been recognized and awarded by major rankings and publications on the field. She is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Ingrid was the in-house IP counsel for the second-largest confectionery manufacturer in Europe (Perfetti Van Melle Holding B.V) for some 15 years. In 2003 she started her own business NOMILEX a.i. management for IP-counsel within the Industry. Early in 2003 Ingrid was appointed to the post of MARQUES Internal Relations Officer to further expand its role in shaping IP in Europe. Currently she is responsible for all internal matters within MARQUES. She sees the MARQUES Organisation as an important tool in achieving that purpose.

Antony is Intellectual Property Counsel at Specsavers, based in Guernsey. He is responsible for all aspects of the group's IP legal work. He is a qualified solicitor (England & Wales) in 2006, initially working for a large provincial UK law firm and specialising in IP and technology. He moved to Vodafone Group in 2009, where he was responsible for supporting the group’s global R&D function, before later becoming a member of the Global Brand Legal Team. He spent a period of time working in Dubai covering all aspects of IP in the Middle East and North Africa. He joined Specsavers in 2013.

Egon is Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz. He and his team specialise in intellectual property work in the fields of inter alia consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, agro science and biotech. Egon was head of the CMS IP Group and heads up the IP practice Vienna and some CEE and SEE countries coordinating cross border IP-litigation. He is a former head of the MARQUES Cyberspace Team. Egon is a teacher of Trademark law at the University Vienna /Juridicum and guest lecturer in other institutions.

Mark is Senior Counsel – Trademarks, Global IP at Kraft Foods UK Holdings & Services (Member of the Mondelēz International family of companies) based in Bournville, England. Mark advises the Group Companies on all aspects of IP surrounding its confectionery brands, in particular trade marks, designs, copyright, licensing, advertising and promotions, and R&D work. Mark completed his legal professional examinations. He has also obtained the IP Diploma from Bristol Unvty.

Joachim Hofmann is Deputy Head of Trademarks with Syngenta (Basel, Switzerland) where he handles int. trade mark, domain name and anti-counterfeit matters. He studied law at the U. of Heidelberg, holds an LL. M. degree from the U. of Miami and a PhD from the University of Mannheim. Previously he was with Novartis and BASF.

Willem heads the IP department at Ploum. He focuses on soft IP and advertising & marketing law. He regularly coordinates pan-European trade mark enforcement and pan-European marketing projects. He is a domain name panelist with WIPO and the Czech Arbitration Court, a WIPO Legal Rights Expert and secretary of the Professional Education for Benelux trade mark attorneys. Willem is a member of the Executive Committee of MARQUES, in which he has a specific responsibility for internal relations, operations, programming, organizing conferences and events and combatting trade mark scams.

Leo Longauer is Director, Global IP Enforcement & Patents at Swarovski and as such responsible for the development and implementations of enforcement strategies for the Swarovski brand and leading the in-house enforcement team and global enforcement operations. Leo holds a Master of Law degree from the University of Berne and an LLM in IP Law and Management from the University of Strasbourg (CEIPI).

Co-Founder at IP-Portunity, a brain trust of IP experience from former IP Dep. Heads of world's leading companies. Our unique array of services is provided to in-house IP dep., law firms and consulting companies. He helps corporations achieve cost-effective and business aligned management of IP assets, law firms with training and support consulting companies with the IP aspects of their projects. He was group Head of Brand IP at Nestlé with worldwide responsibilities for trademarks, designs, copyright, internet/domain names/social media and counterfeits. Before that he was Director IP at Kraft Foods. He holds a Law Degree from the University of Berne, Switzerland and is a qualified attorney admitted to the bar.JP is also VP of the Supervisory Board of the Swiss IPO.

Roland is partner at Taylor Wessing UK and heads up its UK trade mark practice. He advises on a wide range of UK and European IP disputes, incl. litigation and ADR about brand and design copies, comparative advertising, domain names, image rights, new media and other technology. He is responsible for the international trade mark portfolios and IP advisory work for a number of famous brands. Since the early 1990s he has conducted litigation, prosecution or oppositions at all levels of the English courts, UKIPO, OHIM and Court of Justice of the EU, and coordinated cases in most EU countries and many others worldwide.

Associate partner and IP Lawyer at Elzaburu. He has a Law and a Psychology degree, and masters in Legal Practice and in Tax Law. He frequently acts in the Spanish contentious-administrative jurisdiction in IP matters, before the SPTO and EUIPO. He specialises in TMs, GIs, domains and related matters and has advised a wide range of multinational organisations. He is a Certified Executive Coach and speaks ES, EN, DE, FR and IT. He is a member of the Council and chaired the GI Team for 7 years.

Alan heads up the IP team at JT International S.A. based in Switzerland, looking after the tobacco trademark portfolio of various companies falling under the JT Group. He is a UK-qualified trademark attorney with extensive in-house protection and enforcement experience. Previously Alan has held in-house positions with Gallaher Limited, Unilever and a major footwear brand.

Dr .Claudia Pappas graduated in law from University of Freiburg, Germany, wrote her thesis at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg and spent her legal clerkship in Berlin. She was a partner with the IP law firm of Weber & Sauberschwarz in Düsseldorf from 1997 since 2015. She joined ThyssenKrupp in 2016 and is heading the Trademark Department. She is specialized in Intellectual Property Law.

Simone studied law in the Netherlands and graduated from University of Groningen in 1995.After having worked for 4,5 years in private practice (NautaDutilh Amsterdam, IP and M&A), she became Global Trade Mark Counsel at Unilever. In 2008 she moved to the Benelux Legal Department where she became responsible for trade marks and Marketing Law for the Unilever Foods & Refreshment products. In June 2013 she became General Counsel Foods | BCS and Dressings. Simone represents Unilever in various associations, BMM, Marques and is a regular speaker at conferences and Universities. She speaks English, French and Spanish

Carles is a Partner of Baker & McKenzie in Barcelona, practicing in all aspects of intellectual property and antitrust including all types of litigation. Author of several articles and publications on trademark and competition law issues, as well as on international procedural law. Carles is a Lecturer at the Magister Lucentinus in Alicante and other Lawschools and a Board Member of Marques. MARQUES.

Alan is the Company Secretary for MARQUES and is a Director of AssociAction Enterprises - the MARQUES Secretartiat. Alan has over 25 years experience in developing and implementing management and administration systems and is a specialist in delivering professional conferences for associations.

Conversant with the English, French and German languages, Alessandra has been admitted to practice as Trade Mark Attorney before the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, OHIM and WIPO since 1996. She comprehensively counsels on all trademark, domain name and social media related matters at BUZZI, NOTARO & ANTONIELLI d'OULX, in Turin, Italy.

SB.Sc. (Comp. Sc.); Solicitor B.C.L; European Patent Attorney; European Trade Mark Attorney. Shane has practiced as a Solicitor since qualifying in 1982 and specialises in Intellectual Property. He has been a Partner in FRKelly since 1989.

In order to expedite implementation of the Trade Mark Harmonisation Directive, Shane drafted Trade Mark legislation which was introduced as a Private Members Bill and was a precursor to the Irish Trade Marks Act, 1996. Shane was Chairman of the Trade Marks and Designs Committee of the Association of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys (APTMA) and in this role provided advice to APTMA members during the passage of both the Trade Mark and Design primary Legislation in Ireland.

Shane has degrees from both Trinity College (BSc Computer Science) and University College Dublin (BCL). He is a regular guest lecturer on computer law and intellectual property for both universities and is frequently invited to speak at international conferences, business seminars and workshops. Shane gives annual tutorials to students sittingthe Irish Trade Mark Attorney examinations and provides assistance to the Irish Patents Office in the reviewing of Trade Mark exam scripts.

He most recently co-authored the fourth edition of the leading Irish legal textbook on intellectual property, ?Intellectual Property Law in Ireland? (Clark, Smyth & Hall, 4th edition, Bloomsbury Professional, 2016).

Shane was also a member of The Scientific Committee advising the EU Commission regarding the registration of geographical indications of origin. He is a former President of AIPPI (Irish Group), a current Council Member of MARQUES (The Association of European Trade Mark Owners, a Committee Member of ECTA (European Communities Trade Mark Association) and is a member of the EPI Disciplinary Committee.

Shane has a specialist interest in licensing and assignment of intellectual property and is a leading authority on Design matters. While his client base has a local and international reach, he is closely involved in international intellectual property protection for indigenous Irish companies.

Emma joined the trade mark team at British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2015 and is responsible for advising on trade marks, designs and copyright for BAT’s Global Brands. Emma has always specialised in IP and previously worked in private practice in London and Hong Kong before spending 14 years at GlaxoSmithKline as Vice President Consumer Healthcare Trade Marks.

Virginia is a partner in the IP group of Kilpatrick Stockton who specialises in all areas of trade mark practice. She was elected to the Council of MARQUES in September 2003. During the past year, she has worked on recruiting verifiers from various countries for the text of the MARQUES database of national laws related to geographical indications in Europe. She also is active in INTA where she served on the Board of Directors, chaired the Publications Committee and now serves on the Information Resources Committee.

Dieuwerke (Dee) worked at the Global Brand Protection Department of Sara Lee/DE N.V. in Utrecht from 2000. In July 2012 the Coffee & Tea Division of Sara Lee split off and became the companyD.E MASTER BLENDERS 1753, in July 2015 the company merged with the coffee division of Mondelez and became JACOBS DOUWE EGBERTS. She is working for the department responsible for the protection of all trademarks, designs and domain names of the new company. Dee joined the MARQUES Council in 2003 and is a member of the Intellectual Asset Management Team

Nunzia began her career in 1986 at John Labatt Limited in London, Canada. In 1992, she was instrumental in the establishment and headed Labatt International, managing the non-NAFTA portfolio. In 2000 she was seconded to Interbrew in Belgium to manage the integration of acquired portfolios and in the development of their IP team. She is now Senior Trademark Counsel for DSM based in the United Kingdom. Nunzia has been a member of MARQUES Council and Executive since 2001 and served as Chair 2011 to 2012.

“Hanne is Head of Global IP at Carlsberg Group, responsible for all aspects and types of IP. She is a Supreme Court litigator and in her time as partner of a law firm she was recognised as "leader in her field" by Chambers Europe and IP Star of MIP. Previously, she was heading the in-house IP department of Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Hanne is a member MARQUES Council and of MARQUES Dispute Resolution Team.”

Since 1991-active in all fields of trademarks, domain names and designs, copyright and unfair competition including prosecution and litigation and UDRPs. Special expertise in sports related trademarks and international coordination of conflicts; UDRP panelist; arbitrator

Nick is the Managing Director of Com Laude. Nick was the founder of Net Searchers, the UK’s first ICANN accredited domain name registrar and a Director of CPA (Computer Patent Annuities). He is the co-editor of “Domain Names: Global Practice and Procedure” . He is on the Advisory Board of the Czech Arbitration Court which is a panel provider for .eu and gTLD and he was one of three European representatives on the Implementation Recommendation Team created by ICANN’s .

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